Art on the Go: Sketching en Plein Air in the Country, Sebastopol, California

I love it that my daughter loves art as much as I do! Ever since my kids were little, I’ve always tried to do some art project or another with them– making salt dough, collaging with paper scraps, painting on big paper. Whatever the outcome, they both have loved the experience. So, when I went on a weekend trip to the country with my daughter, we of course had to incorporate an art outing to our plan.

We stayed at a lovely Bed and Breakfast in Sebastopol, a small artsy town in Sonoma County. The B&B was located 3 miles out of town, so we definitely got the country experience we wanted including a small barn on site and gorgeous vineyards next door. The setting was perfect for an afternoon of “en plein air” (in fresh air/outdoors) sketching.

Ingredients for an “En Plein Air” Artist’s Outing

The supplies needed for en plein air sketching are simple– just a pencil and a sketch book! We choose to create quick, loose 3 minute sketches while walking around the property. I initially sketched out 2″x3″, 3″x4″ and 4″x6″ rough rectangles on my sketch page. This allowed me to keep the drawing simple, and not try to sketch the entire landscape.

Using a “walkabout” approach of walking around the entire property/area as we sketched was a great way to get quick sketches from different perspectives and subject matter– from the garden and barn to the vineyards.  After creating the sketches, we headed back to the porch and used some color pencils to add a little more flavor of the area to the sketch. This step is completely optional. Below are more sketches from our outing.

Here are a few sketches below from my daughter.